In the class from Wednesday Miss Li talked about Foursquare where you can check in at company’s so your friends can see where you are. I’m a former Foursquare user myself and I was wondering if Foursquare really was that important to company’s since it’s not so popular in the Netherlands. After searching the web I came across this article about Foursquare being used at independent restaurants and restaurant chains.
There are two big social media community’s which are being used by restaurants in the U.S.. The first one is Yelp. This is a site where you can write a review about a restaurant and rate it with starts.It was the most popular site for restaurants to attract customers untill recently. Nowadays Foursquare is the most popular site being used by independent and chain restaurants. Restaurants are using Foursquare to promote their restaurant and give customers a nice discount if they check in. For example, a free cup of coffee or a discount at your drink or meal. The picture on the right shows a discount for a free cup of coffee or thee with a purchase of $5 if you check in. This kind of promotion is very popular in the U.S. but not in The Netherlands. I wondered why this could be. Because if my favorite restaurant would use Foursquare for discounts to attract attention I would definitely use it. All my friends on Foursquare would know there is a promotion at that restaurant where I went and will probably go there themselves. So this sounds like an idea that could possibly be used in Holland as well. I was searching for restaurants in my city (Zoetermeer) but there are no restaurants using Foursquare or Yelp actively yet.
What are your thoughts about this kind of social media by checking in and getting a discount. And will this work for Holland as well as in the U.S.?
The link of the article is below this line. I thought it was a little bit too long to post it. So check it out.
http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2012/08/02/foursquare-trumps-yelp-in-the-restaurant-sector-report
Tim
I think Foursquare could be an upcoming trend. Nowadays people now check-in places (also restaurants, bars and clubs) with Facebook. If restaurants in the Netherlands (or other ‘hangout’ places) anticipate to this growing use of social media, they could indeed attract people. Especially younger people who are now using things like facebook and twitter.